A Red Sunrise Lights an Old Crabapple Tree

The graceful branches of an elderly crabapple tree glow in early sunlight, silhouetted against a blue sky.



The photo below, shot facing south, captures the dawn's red light, warm on the old bark near the tree's cleft. The knothole crevice is about a foot deep, with a nest of old leaves and soft-looking hair or fur at the bottom, hidden in deep shadow. Perhaps a squirrel has slept here? But it's less than five feet above the ground, so not a likely home for squirrels, who usually build their nests in the topmost branches of trees. The material in the tree cavity is probably only windblown debris.

Hot Summer Colors

This little red pepper was half hidden in the plant's lush foliage, on a breezy morning before September's heat wave broke. Bees were buzzing around the tiny blossoms (below) and around the adjacent large yellow squash blooms. Just around the corner from this small urban garden, the wind was blowing the folds of a Tennessee state flag, hung near a cottage window.







The wind was gusting rather sharply at the time I was shooting this flag, but I could never capture it waving and outstretched, because the little gusts lasted such a short time. Tennessee's state flag has three white stars in a blue circle, centrally located in the rectangular red field.

Historic Farm Houses

Near the campus of David Lipscomb University stands this Tennessee historical marker, which describes the two farm houses under their historic oak tree shown in the picture above.

This is the bronze plaque at the foot of the towering old oak tree:

Here are two other views of Avalon and of the log cabin which was David Lipscomb's first farm home: